On Thu, 28 Sep 1995, Roderick Donahue wrote:
 
> NO! Don't ever confuse the Hollywood slime of Paul Verhoeven with the genius
> of Gus Van Sant.
> Paul Verhoeven is the director of Showgirls and Basic Instinct and Gus Van
 
snip...
 
Granted that both Showgirls and Basic Instinct were truly dreadful films,
however, lest we forget that Verhoven also directed Robocop and Total
Recall (two science fiction films which, although problematic, also
influenced a great deal of the genre's gestalt up to today) and the films
he directed in his native Holland, Spetters, The Fourth Man, and Flesh
and Blood were all quite marvellous.
 
The culprit of both BS and SG seems to be screenwriter Joe Esterhaus
(sp?).  Verhoven's biggest sin seems to be his trying to intuit what
Americans expect from cinematic sexuality, because the treatment of
sexuality in his Dutch films is quite a bit different (i.e. The Fourth Man).
 
Just some random thought...
 
Mikel Koven
Department of Folklore
Memorial University of Newfoundland
 
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